museicalitea

 

Ginjima Hitoshi has had the biggest crush on Miya Atsumu for the longest time, ever since he first saw Atsumu arriving late on the first day of school, and in their second year, he finally gathers the courage to confess to home. What he ends up saying is "I'm your biggest fan!", ‘cause he didn’t really think this one through that well. Together, they stand in a classroom lit by the setting sun, and Atsumu’s profile is painted orange and gold, his face cut and striking in the shadows cast on his face by his hair. He is quiet, for a while, and Gin waits. And at last, Atsumu speaks:

 

“Let’s go back to my place.”

 

They catch the train as the sun goes down, and they don’t really talk; Gin supposes there is always time for talking later. They make their way to Atsumu’s apartment, and Atsumu opens the door.

 

Two hours later, Gin has just inked a manga page, Atsumu and his twin Miya Osamu have had a wrestling match on the floor, and it turns out that Gin, far from being Miya Atsumu’s date, is now Miya Atsumu’s manga assistant.

 

What follows goes a little something like this:

 

It turns out that Atsumu is stuck on what direction to take the manga after the current arc, and he is trying to generate some inspiration for himself. He ropes Gin into talking through (and in many cases acting through) his ideas, ranging from everyone being very into boxes to sort out perspective issues in his drawings, to turning the whole thing into an elaborate fantasy manga complete with fox youkai alternate forms. Osamu and Gin between them manage to dissuade Atsumu from this latter notion when it becomes clear Atsumu has no talent for drawing animals whatsoever.

Through interactions with the wide and varied cast of students roped into production on the Miyas’ manga—including drama club president and backgrounds artist Aran-senpai, embellishments artist Suna, and later on the new tone-layer Akagi—it becomes apparent that what Atsumu really needs is a romantic muse - an organic way to push his story forward. The twins start playing a dating simulator game, and become invested in the protagonist’s best friend’s story - but will it spark inspiration, or merely act as an obstacle to meeting their next deadline? How will the new, tall, soft-spoken stranger change the dynamic in Aran-senpai’s drama club? And where does the mysterious Akagi fit into all of this?

 

One thing’s for certain: high school life is a lot more interesting than any shoujou manga.

 

 

Atsumu creates art that is exquisite, compelling, that seems designed to invoke exactly the emotion you, the individual reader, needed at that time. He also has no idea about how romance works, despite writing a romance manga. He is sometimes a bit of a shit to his extensive manga empire team, but serves to enhance their strengths by considering their input into his designs, to make the overall manga creation process more seamless. Likes trying out new things in his manga off-the-cuff, sometimes right up against his deadlines—sometimes these things work, but often they do not.

 

Osamu, Atsumu’s twin brother, writes all the dialogue based on scenario concepts and story beats Atsumu outlines for him. He gets into disagreements about the story with Atsumu all the time, but acknowledges that despite all Atsumu’s shortcomings, he is a dedicated mangaka and his dedication to learning everything he can about his craft pays off with every new issue. Is good friends with Suna, but seems to be feeling something more for him.

 

Suna Rintarou is Osamu’s friend and one of Atsumu’s muses; he often models poses or scenarios for Atsumu to draw, and adds in flowers and other background embellishments. Plays a lot of sport but is also fundamentally lazy, and likes to sleep during lunchtime. One day he woke from a nap to see Miya Osamu disappearing out the door and his blazer draped like a blanket over his shoulders. Did Osamu just think he was cold, or was it a hint of something more?

 

Ginjima is part of the art club at school, and has admired the Miya twins from afar for over a year, since they started school together. He had no clue prior to his confession that they were the team behind his favourite monthly shoujou manga—or, indeed that he was the inspiration for the manga's protagonist, who is something of a keen bean himself. Has a talent for colouring and painting, which leads to his role as an inker and helping with the colour pages.

 

Oojiro Aran is the captain of the drama club, and draws the backgrounds for the Miya twins’ manga in exchange for their costume designs and scripts for the drama club. Despite doing many favours for the twins, he also gets exasperated by their antics—he often finds himself wishing for a rest day, one whole day where he doesn’t have a thing to do with them whatsoever!!! Is intrigued by the new, extremely tall actor who has joined the drama club and just landed the lead role in their next play...

 

Oomimi Ren is a quiet boy who keeps himself to himself and has been involved in the tea ceremony club for all of junior high school and most of senior high school—but he wants a change, and this year has decided to join the drama club. He surprises everyone by winning the lead role in this summer’s play: not least of all drama club captain Aran.

 

Akagi Michinari is new to the school this year, and the Miya twins recruit him for their manga team to cut out the tones, thinking from his height and unassuming demeanour that he’s some lowly first year they can boss around. Little do they know that height belies age; Akagi is a third year, is playing the long game with stringing out the Miyas about his age, and his motives for joining the manga team remain a mystery...

 

And Kita Shinsuke is the protagonist’s best friend in a dating simulator game that the Miyas, Aran and Akagi all play at separate times, trying to work out their burgeoning feelings, or in Atsumu’s case, figure out a romantic plotline. The protagonist is a bit of a weirdo whose dialogue options on his own often lead to watching anime or singing off-key karaoke or eating chocolate ice cream—all very bad for landing romance points—but the calm, steady advice that Kita-san provides proves crucial to advancing the romance, both in-game and in real life. The Miya twins are so overcome by Kita-san’s devotion to his best friend that they end up illustrating a one-shot manga chapter of Kita-san finally landing the man of his dreams: the protagonist.